HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - Gov. Ed Rendell said Monday that negotiators were nearing agreement on the critical question of how large Pennsylvania’s state government budget ought to be.
The Democratic governor described the sides as being “relatively close” to settling on a figure somewhere around $28 billion.
He also said there had been “concessions” on identifying new sources of recurring revenues to plug the state’s multibillion-dollar budget gap - meaning new or higher taxes - but added there were “none that I think the sides would want me to make public at this point.”
Pennsylvania is nearly two months into its fiscal year without a comprehensive budget agreement in place, although state workers have been getting paid since stopgap budget legislation was signed into law earlier this month.